Soft drinks

Soft drinks are so-named to differentiate them from alcoholic beverages, which are considered "hard" drinks. (Of course, there are many non-alcoholic beverages which are not considered soft drinks, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk, uncarbonated water, uncarbonated fruit juice, etc.) Soft drinks are produced by mixing any of various types of flavoring with carbonated water and sugar or honey. Many soft drinks may also have caffeine added, the most common source being a product of the decaffeination of coffee.

The first soft drinks on The Land were produced in LY 806, in Jump Village. The earliest variety of soft drink was sou'cit flavored, having been inspired by a local geological feature called Lymon Mists. In fact, the carbonated water used in the drink's production was actually mineral water taken from that site, with sou'cit flavoring produced from a nearby grove. The beverage, trademarked under the name "Lymon," became quite popular in local restaurants, pubs, and ice cream parlours. (In 904, when the surname law was passed, the clan which owns the company that produces Lymon and other soft drinks in Jump Village chose the name "Lymon" for themselves.) By 810, every village that had access to its own mineral springs which produced carbonated water were beginning to produce their own soft drinks, and experimenting with different flavors.

It's important to note that while some soft drinks are stored in glass bottles and sold in shops, it is more common to buy them in eating or drinking establishments, where the beverages are mixed by hand. However, unless such an establishment has its own mineral spring on the premises, even they must use bottled soda water (a term derived from the practice of adding sodium bicarbonate to carbonated water, to reduce acidity). Because of the term "soda water," soft drinks on both Earth and the Land have come to sometimes simply be called "soda," whether the water includes sodium bicarbonate or not. Villages without access to their own mineral springs, at least early on, did not generally serve freshly-mixed soft drinks in restaurants, though there was some importing of pre-bottled soft drinks.

However, in the years since then, other methods of artificially carbonating water have been developed, most commonly utilizing the carbon dioxide which is released as a byproduct of fermentation, in the making of alcohol. Therefore, many spirit-makers have also become bottlers of soda water, as well as fully-prepared soft drinks. Using this and other methods, villages without mineral springs have begun bottling their own sodas, as well as more commonly serving them in restaurants than they originally did. Soda water has also increasingly been used to dilute various alcoholic beverages. (It should also be said that soda water is sometimes consumed plain, though this is less common than using it with flavoring added.)

In 914, Anja Frontrun developed a method of pressurizing and storing carbon dioxide using piston pumps, and then using the gas to dispense beer from kegs rather than casks. Not long after that, restaurants began also using the system to dispense soda from bar taps (also known as soda fountains). Pressurized carbon dioxide is also becoming more commonly used to produce and bottle soda water, as opposed to earlier methods of artificial carbonation.